First Baptist has a purpose statement. Anyone like to try to recite it from memory?

The Purpose of our church is to be the presence of Christ in our community and the World through Worship, Ministry, Evangelism, Fellowship and Discipleship.

We cannot properly and obediently fulfill our PURPOSE if we never seek our Kings instruction, guidance and correction!

We must become a house of prayer, preparation and listening intently.

Reality: To fulfill our purpose as a church we must gather as a church

The police “10 Codes” are fairly well known

10-2 – Signal Good

10-4 – OK

10-25 – Meet in person (face to face)

Hebrews 10:23-25 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, forhe who promised is faithful. Andlet us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, andall the more as you seethe Day drawing near.” ESV

Reality: By this standard, Wednesday Nights SHOULD BE the biggest attendance night of the week!

It is not that we do not pray at our other services, we certainly do

Wednesday night is the time we set aside for the church family to gather together and join in one accord as we lift up prayer requests and praises to our King.

This is a time of seeking God and supporting each other THEN move into Bible Study.

If we truly were about seeking God

If we truly wanted to hear from Him

If we truly believed He hears our prayer

If we believe that He meant it when He told us to not neglect the gathering of ourselves together as His Children (Hebrews 10:25)

If we believe that there is power in the gathering together of believers (Acts:2:40 – 47)

Priority of prayer

The power of a church is not in the foolishness of preaching

The power of the church is not in a denomination or the paperwork

The full power of the church is not in the people

The power of the church resides in the Lord

who designed it,

called it,

empowers it and

uses it to build men and women of faith to serve Him through

Prayer is our communication “data port” with God

Priority of teaching and learning

We call this discipleship

We call this Spiritual growth

We call this spiritual formation

Corporately we do this on Sunday Mornings at 10 AM

Corporately we do this Sunday Morning at 11 AM

Corporately we do this Wednesday Evening at 6:30 PM

Corporately we do this at VBS

Corporately we do this at Revival Services

Individually we should be about this in our homes, at our workplaces and in our community.

Priority of focus/paying attention

For our praying and learning to be effective there is one more PRIORITY we can learn from this text: